The Cyber Hymnal ‎#5979

5979. Servants of God, in Joyful Lays

1. Servants of God, in joyful lays,
Sing ye the Lord Jehovah’s praise;
His glorious name let all adore,
From age to age, forevermore.

2. Blest be that name, supremely blest,
From the sun’s rising to its rest;
Above the heav’ns His pow’r is known,
Through all the earth His goodness shown.

3. Who is like God? so great, so high,
He bows Himself to view the sky;
And yet, with condescending grace,
Looks down upon the human race.

4. He hears the uncomplaining moan
Of those who sit and weep alone;
He lifts the mourner from the dust;
In Him the poor may safely trust.

5. O then, aloud, in joyful lays,
Sing to the Lord Jehovah’s praise;
His saving name let all adore,
From age to age, forevermore.

Text Information

• First Line: Servants of God, in joyful lays
• Title: Servants of God, in Joyful Lays
• Author: James Mongtomery (1789)
• Meter: LM
• Language: English
• Copyright: Public Domain
• Notes: Holland, in his "Mem­oirs of Mont­gom­e­ry," says that af­ter Mont­gom­e­ry ran away from the Mo­ra­vi­an school at Ful­neck, he lived from 1788 to June 19, 1789, with one Lock­wood, at Mir­field, near Leeds. This per­son was a Mo­ra­vi­an. He kept a small re­tail shop, and went by the name of the “Fine Bread Bak­er.” Hol­land says:— "Of the con­duct of Mont­gom­e­ry behind the count­er we ne­ver heard much; he did not re­main there more than a year and a half; he had lit­tle to do, and still less in­clin­a­tion for the em­ploy­ment, such as it was. While there he com­posed the larg­est part of the po­em of Al­fred, and amongst his small­er piec­es a me­tric­al ver­sion of the 113th Psalm, which, ma­ny years af­ter­wards, was pub­lished, with some ver­bal al­ter­a­tions, in the col­lection [Cot­ter­ill’s Sel., 1819] now in use un­der the aus­pic­es of the Arch­bi­shop of York in var­i­ous church­es in the di­o­cese and else­where.”"Mem­oirs, i. p. 73 This ver­sion of Ps. 113 is on p. 57 of Cot­ter­ill’s Sel., 1819, in 5 st. of 4 l. It was re­published in Mont­gom­e­ry’s Songs of Zi­on, 1822, and is found in sev­er­al mo­dern hymn­books. It ve­ry fre­quent­ly be­gins, “Ser­vants of God! in joy­ful lays.” This is the first line of the last stan­za, and is sub­sti­tut­ed for the orig­in­al open­ing of the hymn. This is the ear­li­est of Mont­gom­e­ry’s hymns to which a date can be giv­en. Julian, p. 1053

Tune Information

• Name: TRURO
• Composer: Thom­as Will­iams (1789)
• Meter: LM
• Key: C Major
• Source: Psalm­o­dia Evan­gel­i­ca, by Thom­as Will­iams, 1789
• Copyright: Public Domain